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Empire of Japan (I
The history of Japan in Iron and Blood 4 diverges from our timeline circa unification under in 1590. The ultimately resolves in Japan's conquest of the peninsula, with 's death on the front lines averting the historical power struggle that followed Hideyoshi's death. Under Toyotomi stewardship, Japan never adopts the policy of , readily importing and synthesizing Western technology to secure a commanding position in East Asia. Consolidation of Toyotomi dynasty Following the in 1584, Hashiba Hideyoshi emerged as effective ruler of Japan. While his commoner origin disqualified him from appointment as , he was adopted into the Fujiwara clan and proceeded to secure a succession of high court titles, becoming Imperial Regent ( ) in 1585. The next year he was granted the new surname Toyotomi by the imperial court; his dynasty would retain the kampaku title from thereon. The death of Hideyoshi's three-year-old son Tsurumatsu in September 1591, and half-brother shortly following, jeopardized the dynasty's stability. In January 1592, Hideyoshi adopted his nephew , appointing him kampaku; while Hideyoshi assumed the title of Taikō (retired regent), he remained de facto ruler of Japan. When Hideyoshi's second son was born in 1593, Hidetsugu was forced to commit suicide to forestall a potential succession crisis. Invasion and subjugation of Korea Hideyoshi launched an with the goal of annexing Korea and the , and pre-emptively neutralizing Chinese threats to Japanese interests. The Japanese army proved superior in the field, conquering the peninsula within three months; however guerrilla warfare jeopardized its supply lines, leading to a chain of tactical defeats and retreat from Korea. Japan sued for peace in 1595, retaining control of and the port of . Undaunted, Hideyoshi spent the next two years planning a new campaign. In 1597, an expedition under command of used Busan as a staging point for a rapid invasion of key cities on the southern and western coasts. Unlike the first campaign, assimilating the Koreans was no longer an objective: the army razed entire settlements and massacred their inhabitants, with the region resettled by Japanese colonists to ensure loyalty and safeguard supply lines. In less than six months Korea was firmly under Japanese control, with major ports heavily fortified and local resistance brutally suppressed. Careful planning resulted in a decisive Japanese victory against in the Battle of the Yalu River, however casualties were high on both sides and Tokugawa was slain in battle. Both parties sued for peace in 1598: the Ming army was devastated and beset by Jurchen agitation, while Japan was in the midst of a leadership crisis following Hideyoshi's death on 18 September. While Korea was officially made a Japanese vassal state, in practice it was treated as a province and was the focus of concerted colonization. Regency period Prior to his death, Hideyoshi formed a to govern Japan until his son came of age. Tokugawa had originally been chosen to head the Council, and his death in Korea left the chain of command unclear. The Council comprised daimyōs from five prominent clans: , , , , and , who replaced Tokugawa. Despite clan rivalries threatening the government's stability, the co-regents managed a tenuous balance of power by dividing control of Japan between themselves and aiding each other in subjugating outlying regions: while the Toyotomi and Tokugawa clans retained control of and , the Shimazu claimed , the Ukita and , and western, central and eastern split between the Mōri, Maeda and Uesugi, respectively. Korea and were divided between lesser clans and vassal daimyōs of the regents. The arrival of Norse-Dutch sailor circa 1600 provided the Japanese with new insight into ship construction and their first world maps. The was upgraded with Western-style designs, and in 1609 participated in the Shimazu conquest of the , ostensibly conducted in the name of the Emperor and Kampaku. The Shimazu were granted permission to vassalise Ryukyu provided portions of tribute were paid to the other regents and the national treasury. 17th Century Toyotomi Hideyori came to power in 1611 to a country at peace and prospering from European trade. While the Portuguese had initially enjoyed a monopoly on Japanese commerce, Anjin's expedition led to inroads by the in , and . Hideyori exploited their competition, opening more ports to . Japan continued to improve its naval designs to suit the Asian seaboard and Pacific Ocean travel. The first major test of its new warships was the 1662 intervention against during their invasion of Canton. The Ming navy was destroyed and its bases bombed, stranding the main army on the continent; the Japanese proceeded to invade Taiwan with overwhelming force, the sparsely-populated island offering little resistance. Taiwan became a new target for colonization, serving as headquarters for the Southern Fleet in anti-piracy operations and escort duty for European merchants. The Japanese also began transoceanic voyages, establishing direct trade with the Americas and founding their own outposts in Central America independent of Spanish ports. Hideyori died in 1672 and was succeeded by his son Hidetsugu, who proved even more adventurous, commissioning multiple expeditions to chart the entire ocean. The result was the Japanese Atlas, the most exhaustive Pacific Sea charts then compiled. In the course of these expeditions the Japanese discovered the Hawai'ian archipelago; while considered a lucrative way station for transoceanic trade routes, logistical difficulties forestalled a military expedition and colonization plans were scrapped. 18th Century Prolonged peace and booming trade were beginning to threaten nation-wide stability as population growth outpaced economic development. In an effort to control foreign influence and stymie Christian evangelism, Hidetsugu relocated the treaty ports off the mainland to Taiwan and Korea. The move upset Christian daimyōs and the Shimazu and Tokugawa clans, the main beneficiaries of the old routes. Conversely, Japan began yearly trade missions to America, similar to the . Conquest of Karafuto Hidetsugu's successor Yoshimoto sought to relieve population pressure by organizing concerted colonization of in 1742, expanding scattered fishing villages into permanent settlements. This antagonized the inhabitants, who saw Japanese encroachment as similar to their expulsion from Hokkaido three centuries earlier. Scattered raids consolidated into an organized resistance when in 1746 eastern Manchu clans, seeking to stonewall Japanese expansionism, began supplying arms and advisors to the Ainu. Seeing an opportunity to reclaim the loyalty of the disaffected clans, Yoshimoto summoned the Kyushu clans, as well as the Tokugawa and Uesugi, for a military expedition to Karafuto that totalled approximately 300,000 troops. The Manchu responded with an expedition of equal or greater strength to reinforce the Ainu in an assault on the main port of Toyohara. When naval patrols discovered Manchu troop ships, the Kampaku ordered Toyohara reinforced with all available cannon; the ensuing battle witnessed the largest concentration of preindustrial artillery in history, and is considered an early example of line infantry tactics. The Manchu expedition was virtually destroyed, and Japanese control of the island would remain uncontested from then on. Conquest of Kitaezo Japan seized on the Manchu intervention as pretext for a reprisal campaign into the continent. The main army at Toyohara was split, with 125,000 troops assembling at the northern tip of Karafuto and 75,000 rebasing to Korea. On 18 September, the anniversary of Hidetsugu's death, Japan launched a two-pronged invasion of . The coast was seized in less than two months, and the two armies linked up halfway on 17 November. Cowed by the defeat at Toyohara, the Manchu surrendered practically without a fight; peace was signed December 5, with Japan formally seizing Karafuto and the Manchurian coast, which were collectively designated the Region of Kitaezo and colonized similarly to Taiwan and Korea. 19th Century Japanese Civil War Yoshimoto died in 1789, followed by his son Yoshiro five years later, leaving Toyotomi Inomasa only fifteen when he ascended as kampaku. His resistance to a second Council of Regency antagonized several clans, and national unity deteriorated over the next four years, erupting into open rebellion by the Mōri and Shimazu on 14 August 1798. Inomasa was supported by the Tokugawa and Date clans, while the Maeda and Ukita refused to take sides. The first three years saw only minor skirmishes and inconclusive battles, but in 1800 the Shimazu began planning naval invasions of the main Toyotomi and Tokugawa strongholds. The Battle of Tosa on 23 September 1801 broke the Western army's naval superiority and forced the rebels onto a defensive footing, as Inomasa led a ground campaign into western Honshu and Tokugawa Fuhide invaded Shikoku. By March 1802, the Shimazu were besieged at Nagasaki and the Mōri were preparing for a decisive battle at Hiroshima. While the Western army outnumbered Inomasa's force, as in the Battle of Toyohara artillery proved the deciding tactic. The demoralized Shimazu flank broke after receiving news of Nagasaki, and the Mōri were swiftly overwhelmed; the rebels capitulated soon afterward. Second Regency Council Inomasa sustained major injuries in the battle that left him disabled for life. He did not father any children until 1837, his son Yoshifune born from a concubine. Ironically, Inomasa was forced to create a second Council of Regency, drawing from clans outside the Home Islands: Shōni (Taiwan), Hatakeyama (Korea), Satake (Kitaezo), Honma (Karafuto), and Hosokawa (Hokkaido). The Council governed from Inomasa's death in 1846 to Yoshifune's ascension in 1852. While the Council's composition was intended to counterbalance the traditional influence of Honshu daimyōs, on its dissolution the co-regents attempted to leverage their accumulated wealth and status to secede as independent states. Yoshifune proved as tough as his father, annexing the overseas territories into the state directly and allying with Home Islands clans to crush the rebellions over the next two years. Industrialization and government restructuring During the rebellion, the kampaku began importing European steam engines to support military logistics and improve the local economy, expanding from inter-city railroads to industrial machinery and experimental weaponry. By the final campaign against Taiwan, Japan had developed steam-powered warships with turreted guns that the vaunted Southern Fleet could not match. The rapid modernisation was not without controversy, and several daimyōs concerned by the erosion of tradition petitioned the Emperor to make a formal pronouncement on the matter. When the Emperor died before announcing his decision, Yoshifune seized the opportunity to expand the kampaku's office into its own Council of Regency, inviting four subordinate co-regents chosen from the Reunion of Daimyō, an assembly of all the local lords, thereby providing the government representational legitimacy. The Council confirmed the modernisation project in 1857, going on to sponsor several major companies. Sumitomo and Matsui, founded in the early days of Hideyoshi's rule, quickly bought up land, machinery, and smaller companies to secure a virtual monopoly over Japanese factories, until the Kampaku and Tokugawa sponsored Mitsubishi and Yasuda as competitive counterbalance. Collectively, the "Big Four" grew to generate forty percent of Japanese GDP and gained great influence over the daimyōs; in 1868 the first corporate chairman was elected to the Council, and the group was henceforth nicknamed the . Corporatization of foreign policy In 1874, all four elected Council regents were zaibatsu chairmen. Their interests largely divergent from the Reunion, they used their position in pursuit of corporate power; competition with Shanghai and hunger for raw materials culminated in the 1894 Manchu–Japanese War that ended with Japan annexing the region entire. This was followed by pressure on the kampaku to enter the Great War in 1898 to seize the Dutch-held Philippine Archipelago. Designs on Malacca were thwarted by Port Hadley, whose aggressive diplomacy postponed an invasion long enough for the Republic of Canton to seize the region for itself. Recognizing Port Hadley's authority, the zaibatsu attempted to normalize relations, but were stonewalled by Lady Marie-Charlotte's hostility to Japanese imperialism. Japan would eventually lose the Philippines in 1908 after troop withdrawals provoked a Cantonese-backed uprising and its annexation by Guangzhou, with a bid at reconquest again blocked by Port Hadley. 20th Century Yoshifune died in 1907 at age 69, his 24 year-old son Toyotomi Musashi succeeding as the eighth Kampaku. In a bid to assert Japanese prowess and his own worth as leader, he invaded and annexed the peaceful Kingdom of Hawai'i in the largest amphibious landing yet seen. The campaign was effectively little more than a publicity stunt: while not a formal colony, two centuries of unofficial immigration led Japanese residents to outnumber local Hawai'ians, and the culture had already been partially assimilated into Japanese folklore. As a result, Hawai'i made no resistance, leading a Port Hadley observer to describe the war as "The largest military parade ever seen before." Relations with Port Hadley thawed after Lady Sarah succeeded Marie-Charlotte in 1916, signing the Taipei Pact for East Asian Prosperity, a comprehensive treaty for economic and political development and stability in East Asia. It was expanded in 1924 by the Eastern Oceans Trading Sphere Conference, an economic alliance incorporating the Portuguese Empire to govern international trade and common policy on contraband and tariffs. Category:History subpages Category:Pregame history of I&B4